We hear many voices, and they all say, "Listen to me."
They are all clamoring for our attention. Some are
so soothing and easy to listen to,
while others are harsh, raspy or downright unpleasant.

Which voice should we listen to? Generally we choose
to listen to the voice that tells us what we want to hear:
"You did great." "You are beautiful/handsome." "It's
not your fault." "I love you."

Unfortunately, the things we want to hear are not always
what we need to hear. Sometimes, it is more beneficial
 to us to hear: "You erred. You can do better." Beauty is
 as beauty does." "It was your fault.
You need to correct it." "I love you anyhow."

Jesus said His "sheep knew His voice" (John 10).
He spoke of His great love for them (us). There are
many imitations of His voice, and in order to get our
attention these voices will try to appease us by speaking
smooth, flattering words, words we desire to hear. So
we need to be tuned in to the voice of Jesus as He speaks
 through His Word, the Holy Spirit and authentic
spokespersons for Him
(who will always speak in the context of His Word).

The Good Shepherd's voice will always tell us the truth
 about ourselves. He knows us with perfect knowledge,
and he has perfect understanding of our every thought,
 motive and desire. Now, that might be intimidating
to us if we didn't know that he loves us unconditionally,
unselfishly and with the highest motives for our good. We
will never go wrong nor be misled by listening to His
voice. It is not necessary that we have perfect
understanding in order to listen to and follow His
instructions and leadership, because we are listening to
and following One who does have perfect
understanding and knows our future.

What was it that made Peter step out of the boat and
 begin to walk on the stormy sea? (Matthew 14:29)
 What if he had been listening to an imposter?
Peter just stepped out onto the turbulent waves as the
voice of Jesus beckoned him. He knew the voice and knew t
hat it was dependable. He walked until he quit listening to
 Jesus' voice and began listening to the voice of the storm.

There are many scriptural references that tell us that
even the devil and his angels know the "real" voice of
God and recognize that His Voice is one of authority
and they must obey. Then why don't we?

I once read that in order to properly train people who
handle money to recognize counterfeit bills, they must be thoroughly familiar with the real ones. The repeated
exposure they had was to the genuine, not the
bogus ones. If they became proficient in recognizing
the authentic paper money, they would instantly know if a counterfeit passed into their hands.

That should tell us something. We don't need to be chasing
after all the voices that we hear, no matter how good they
sound to us nor what they promise. Instead, we need to
become so familiar with the voice of Truth that instinctively
we will know when we hear an imitation and disregard it.
"His sheep know his voice."
Delores Adams
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